Students should know that every academic discipline requireswriters to conform to certain standards of visualpresentation or "format."Most disciplines' formats differ fromone another, but all are important to readers.Because this course is taught in the English Department, papers should
conform to the MLA Stylesheet, a summary of which is presentedbelow. For full instructions, see the MLA Handbook for Writers
ofResearch Papers (2009 edition or later), a copy of
which is available at the Writing Center or at the library, or the Bedford,
Freeman, and Worth web page to support Diane Hacker's Handbooks:
http://image.mail.bfwpub.com/lib/feed1c737d6c03/m/1/Hacker_MLA2009Update.pdf."MLA" stands for the Modern Language Association, a major professional
organization in the field of English literature and composition studies.These rules help writers
share resources with their readers, and advertise the writers’ willingness to
have their facts checked.Both of
those functions are essential to the creation of intellectual property. Ask your
instructor and Writing Center tutorsfor
help.

Overall Paper Format:

All papers must be typed or computer printed, single-sided, with appropriate margins.
This is different from the style required in all my other courses because
English 215 papers cannot be commented on as thoroughly as those other courses'
papers. The whole purpose for double-spacing is to allow more space for
marginal comment, a tradition inherited from printers' copy-editors. Papers
should not include separate pages for titles or Works Cited sections, and
no blank pages or special binders should be used.All papers must identify themselves onthe first page by title, author, course and sectionnumber, and date.All
pages must benumbered.Each paper must end with an accurate and properlyconstructed "Works Cited" section.All sources quoted, paraphrased, or summarized (including handouts you
get in class) must be acknowledged inparentheses
in your text, as in this direct quotation of a claim that "the cost of
elective pregnancy termination . . . must be approaching $500 million a
year" (Wilson 19).

I will not consider "Works Cited" in the page
count.

Do not use endnotes to provide bibliographic information like publishers' names,
dates, or page numbers. That is a confusion with U. Chicago footnote
style.
Use endnotes only to explain complex indebtedness.Thecourse encourages
discussion outside of class.If
your paper hasbenefited in any
important way from the ideas of others,acknowledge
them in an endnote to the first sentence which sayssomething like this:

This
note protects its author from violation of the Honor Code,explaining how it might be that Edith's paper might containsimilar ideas about poverty and the arts, or how another writerwho talked with Nancy Atwell might have had a similar thesis aboutGinsberg.Remember, acknowledged
collaboration on a paper is notplagiarism
unless your teacher has told you specifically not tocollaborate (e.g., on a take-home exam, etc.).

I will not
count a reasonably constructed endnote or two in the page count.

Email:

A Sample
"Works Cited" Section--of course, this would be located after the
last endnote, or after the last paragraph of text, and not all papers have so
many sources as to require "Primary Sources" to be separated from the Secondary
Sources--just don't neglect to cite the primaries!:

Wright,
Thomas, ed.Political Poems and
Songs Relating to English History Composed During the Period from the Accession
of Edw. III to that of Ric. III.London:
Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1859.2 Vol.

Post,
J.B.“Ravishment of Women and the
Statutes of Westminster.”Legal
Records and the Historian: Papers presented to the Cambridge Legal History
Conference, 7-10 July, 1975 and in Lincoln’s Inn Old Hall on 3 July 1974.Ed. J.H. Baker.London:
Royal Historical Society, 1978.